Herbicides are very useful for controlling certain weeds and unwanted grasses in the presence of growing crops. However, many of the herbicides injure certain crop plants by slowing growth and development at application rates necessary to stunt or kill the weeds and grasses. Accordingly, many herbicides cannot be used for controlling weeds in the presence of certain crops. Obviously, a safening agent (also referred to as herbicide antidote) consisting of a composition that can be used to treat the seed of the crop plant, the crop plant locus or the crop plant itself, resulting in a reduction of injury due to application of the herbicide without an unacceptable corresponding reduction of herbicidal action on the weeds or grasses, would be quite beneficial. A new class of safening agents for doing that is provided by the present invention.